40 LIFE OF 



sentinels, leaving his guide and horses behind, and 

 ultimately reached Buenos Ayres in safety. After a fort- 

 night's delay, Monte Video was once more made for. 

 Here it appeared that the Beagle would remain some- 

 time longer, so the restless inquirer started on another 

 expedition, this time up the Uruguay and Rio Negro. 

 One of the halts was at the house of a very large landed 

 proprietor. A friend of the proprietor's, a runaway 

 captain from Buenos Ayres, was very anxious to have 

 the traveller's opinion on the beauty of the Buenos 

 Ayres ladies, and on receiving satisfactory assurances, 

 voluntarily gave up his bed to the stranger! During 

 this journey amazing quantities of huge thistles were met 

 with, the cardoon being as high as a horse's back, while 

 the Pampas thistle rose above the rider's head. To 

 leave the road for a yard was out of the question. 

 Incidentally the writer describes fully the horsemanship of 

 the Gauchos, and gives a vivid picture of the state of 

 society in the towns. 



During this journey, too, a peculiar breed of small 

 cattle, called niata, was observed, but full details 

 were not given till the second edition of the Journal 

 appeared. This breed is strangely at a disadvantage in 

 droughts, compared with ordinary cattle ; their lower jaws 

 project beyond the upper, and their lips do not join, 

 rendering them unable to browse on twigs. " This strikes 

 me," says Darwin, " as a good illustration of how little 

 we are able to judge from the ordinary habits of life, on 

 what circumstances, occurring only at long intervals, the 

 rarity or extinction of a species may be determined." 

 By the time this appeared, however, in 1845, ^ ie author 

 had embarked on his great investigation. 



